1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an intramedullary nail and a device for fixating or fixing the intramedullary nail in a hollow bone according to the preambles of the independent patent claims.
2. Discussion of Background Information
Intramedullary nails and in particular lockable intramedullary nails are a known implement for the treatment fractures of long hollow bones, wherein the intramedullary nails are introduced into the medullary cavity of the damaged bone for mechanically bridging the bone lesion. With the so-called locking intramedullary nails, locking screws which are inserted for bridging and/or connecting the bone and the locking nail, particularly across or in the bone and the locking nail or parts thereof, serve to secure the connection between the bone and the locking nail against any displacement, in particular a displacement of the locking nail, in the direction of the bone axis, as well as against any rotation, particularly a rotation of the locking nail, as regards the bone axis.
In presently available common intramedullary nails, the locking screws are placed in fixed positions in discrete openings in the intramedullary nail. In this case, normally, the locking screws are arranged in the intramedullary nail in a substantially radial manner, however, the locking screws can—as for example in the proximal Femur—also be arranged at a predetermined angle of inclination with respect to the longitudinal axis of the intramedullary nail.
The placement of the locking screws in the intramedullary nail which is placed in the hollow bone hereby requires great experience on behalf of the surgeon so as to precisely position and fixate or fix the intramedullary nail. The surgeon has practically no possibility to correct even a slight misalignment of the locking screw during the surgery or operation.
In any case, hitherto, it has not been possible to adjust the position and the angle of the bores for the locking screws and their position as regards the individual anatomic situation resulting from the injury during surgery. It would, however, in many cases be advantageous to be able to vary the angle of the locking screws which penetrate through the intramedullary nail during surgery, in order to reposition fracture fragments or to adapt the fracture fragments in anatomically correct positions. Subsequently, the locking screws should be able to be blocked in an angularly stable manner in their determined positions.
The object of the present invention is to propose a further intramedullary nail, in particular a locking intramedullary nail (in the following also referred to as an intramedullary nail).
A further object of the invention is to propose an apparatus for fixing an intramedullary nail in a hollow bone.